USAA Signature Visa - Cancel or Let Linger?

[dfree86]

Hey guys,

How CC stuff works is mostly a mystery to me so I thought I'd ask more informed heads.

I have a USAA Signature Visa card that I've had since I was like 16 - almost 14 years now. It has no special rewards or benefits, 10% APY - but I pay it off every month. Basically it's a vestige of my teens and 20s and I now put like $200/month on it just to give it some love.

My wife and I do use USAA as our main accounts for banking, checking, etc. It's our paycheck direct deposit and where we sweep investments money out of. So it's our main hub for everything that isn't credit.

For Credit Cards we've gone completely over to chase (CSP, then CSR and probably a FU in the near future). We charge 90% of our purchases on with one of the Chase CCs and then pay the balances off in full every month with money from the USAA accounts.

So - what should I do with this token USAA CC that barely gets any use? Will closing it hurt my credit score? I'd rather just not have to think about it, to be honest! But I don't wanna close it if it's going to have adverse effects.

Thanks!

[boarder42]

i'd try to get the balance upped and then sell tradelines on that baby.

[dfree86]

i'd try to get the balance upped and then sell tradelines on that baby.

Thanks! I have no idea what this means. But you sound excited about it. : )

[boarder42]

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/selling-tradelines-piggybacking-$600hr-20-40kyr-side-gig/650/?topicseen

[honeybbq]

I'd keep it since it helps establishes a long credit history.

I'm almost 40 and whenever I get a credit check (mortgage, etc) the only 'negative' I have is "length of credit history" which goes back to when I was 16 lol.

[renata ricotta]

I'm in literally the same position.  Actually, I'm a tad creeped out because your situation is 100% the same as my husband's, including the fact that he would probably put 86 in a username, and it would be very freaky friday to accidentally run into him on the internet.  We're just keeping his USAA Sig Visa open and not charging anything to it except for a small recurring monthly charge so we never have to worry about it being open ($6 for spotify or something).  It's set up to auto pay so we never think about it, but it is useful in keeping our credit scores super high because "average age of account" is an important factor.  Opening the Chase BA card, CSP, and CSR in the last year dragged our average age down, so it's really nice to have an outlier card that is 10+ years old to make up the difference.

[renata ricotta]

Ha, just realized you're the same user from the CSR thread, and I'm relieved you aren't my spouse haunting the same forums as I do :) Carry on!

[dfree86]

Ha, just realized you're the same user from the CSR thread, and I'm relieved you aren't my spouse haunting the same forums as I do :) Carry on!

Haha! No spouse haunting. Promise! Thanks for the advice. I didn't know about the AVG credit years thing so i'll definitely keep it open with a small, nominal charge on it.

Thanks!

[Metric Mouse]

i'd try to get the balance upped and then sell tradelines on that baby.

Second this.